Sadriddin Ayni
Encyclopedia
Tajik language
Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...
: Садриддин Айнӣ, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
: صدرالدين عيني), also Sadriddin Aini, a Tajik intellectual prolifically engaged in poetry, fictional writing, journalism, history and lexicography. He is regarded as Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
's national poet and one of the most important writers of the country's history.
Ayni was born of peasant stock in the village of Saktara in what was then the Emirate of Bukhara
Emirate of Bukhara
The Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of...
. He became an orphan at 12 and moved to join his older brother in Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
, where he attended a madrasa and learned to write in Arabic.
In the early 1920s Ayni helped to propagate the Russian Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In 1934 he attended the Soviet Congress of Writers as the Tajik representative. By purporting national identity in his writings, he was able to escape the Soviet censors that quieted many intellectuals in Central Asia. Ayni survived the Soviet Purges
Purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Purges with a "small-p" purge was one of the key rituals during which a periodic review of party members was conducted to get rid of the "undesirables"....
, and even outlived Stalin by one year. He was member of the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan for 20 years, was awarded the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
three times, and was the first president of the Academy of Sciences of Tajik SSR
Tajik Academy of Sciences
Tajik Academy of Sciences incorporates 20 research institutes and three territorial groupings: the Pamir Branch in the eastern part of the country , the Khujand Scientific Center in the north, and the Khatlon Scientific Center in the south-west...
. After 1992, his writing helped to bind together a sense of Tajik nationalism that survived the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ayni recreated Tajik literature in Tajikistan that had been banned during emirate when he wrote Dokhunda (1927), the first Tajikistani novel in the Tajik language
Tajik language
Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...
. His main work is the four-volume Yoddoshtho.
Ayni's early poems were about love and nature, but after the national awakening in Tajikistan, his subject matter shifted to the dawn of the new age and the working class. His writings often criticized the Amir of Bukhara
Mohammed Alim Khan
Emir Said Mir Mohammed Alim Khan was the last emir of the Manghit dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of the Emirate of Bukhara in Central Asia...
. Two recognizable writings include The Slave and The Bukhara Executioners.
Ayni died in Dushanbe
Dushanbe
-Economy:Coal, lead, and arsenic are mined nearby in the cities of Nurek and Kulob allowing for the industrialization of Dushanbe. The Nurek Dam, the world's highest as of 2008, generates 95% of Tajikistan's electricity, and another dam, the Roghun Dam, is planned on the Vakhsh River...
where a mausoleum stands in his honor.
Demolishing Ayni's House in Samarkand
According to RFERL Tajik Service, Ayni's house in Samarkand is under threat to demolish it by Uzbekistan government. The source also indicates for the past years all Tajik schools were closed and their numbers decreased.External links
- Sadriddin Ayni's timeline and biography
- ṢADR-AL-DĪN, Encyclopædia Iranica